Akpabio, Yahaya Bello have no reputation to protect, Akpoti-Uduaghan tells court
Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has told the Federal High Court in Abuja that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello have no good reputation to protect, arguing that her statements accusing them of orchestrating an assassination plot against her did not amount to defamation.
Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan made the submission in a notice of preliminary objection to ongoing cyberbullying and defamation charges filed against her by the federal government.
In the objection, dated 18 September and marked CR/195/25, the senator, through her lawyer, Michael Numa, SAN, argued that both Messrs Akpabio and Bello had abused their respective offices.
She said Mr Akpabio, during his tenure as Akwa Ibom governor, was accused of several incidents of violence, while Mr Bello was accused of mismanaging state funds when he served as Kogi governor.
The senator maintained that those allegations are more grievous than any supposed defamation the government claimed she committed.
The application, filed pursuant to Sections 6(6)(c), 42(1), and 174(3) of the Nigerian Constitution, is supported by a 17-page affidavit deposed to by Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan herself.
In the affidavit, she argued that the cyberbullying and defamation suits were not instituted in the public interest, but rather to serve the personal interests of Messrs Akpabio and Bello.
She maintained that her statements accusing the two men of plotting to assassinate her were personal imputations and did not relate to their official capacities as public officers.
The lawmaker further alleged that the police failed to conduct any credible investigation before the federal government proceeded to file the charges against her.
Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan stated that she would, in the subsequent parts of her affidavit, tender documentary evidence to prove that the charges amounted to an abuse of the legal and prosecutorial powers of the Attorney-General of the Federation, insisting that the prosecution was politically motivated.
The defamation charges
The federal government has filed two separate criminal cases against Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan.
The first case, marked CR/297/25, was filed on 16 May under Section 391 of the Penal Code Law, Cap 89, Laws of the Federation, 1990, which criminalises making damaging imputations against another person’s reputation. She was charged before the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court.
The charge followed an interview she granted on Channels Television’s programme, Politics Today, aired on 3 April, where she alleged that her life was in danger following the withdrawal of her security detail. During the interview, she also accused Messrs Akpabio and Bello of being behind the alleged plot to assassinate her.
M.B. Abubakar, director of the Department of Public Prosecutions of the Federation (DPPF), who signed the charge sheet, said Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan knowingly made those allegations with the awareness that they could damage the reputations of the individuals mentioned.
The second case, marked CR/195/25, expands on the earlier charges by including remarks she allegedly made during a homecoming event in her constituency on 1 April.
At the gathering, she reiterated claims that the Senate president and the former governor were plotting to assassinate her. She attributed the alleged plot to her refusal to succumb to political pressure and a failed attempt to recall her from the Senate.
The second charge also retained the claims she made during her 3 April interview on Channels Television